Attempts

This DIY Ritual Bath Bomb is ideal for a ritual soak/ cleanse. With the New Moon today, I thought I’d share this recipe to aide you in any intention setting and spellwork you might do. It’s a New Moon in Pisces/ Solar Eclipse and it’s a perfect time to set intentions rooted in emotion and honesty to oneself. Furthermore, you can take advantage of the new moon’s energy for a couple of days afterward, so please do! You’re not too late.

I recommend charging some amethyst or citrine under the new moon tonight for use in your future DIY Ritual Bath Bomb. You can use the charged stones as part of your rituals throughout the month. Oftentimes I strategize what color, essential oil, and crystal are best suited to my intention before making a bath bomb that reflects those things.

When I first attempted to make my own DIY Ritual Bath Bomb I was filled with such feelings of grandiose, it’s embarrassing. Like all of us, I’ve seen at least a dozen tutorials for bath bombs over the years. I figured they were missing something, though. As a witch and budding herbalist, I had a ton of ideas for bringing more intention and herbal remedy to the notion of a bath bomb.

I want to be 100% real with you here, I was certain that I was on the cusp of starting my DIY Ritual Bath Bomb empire—before I’d even tried to make a single bath bomb. The problem was in the execution.

I think I used a recipe that had too much moisture, which resulted in my bath bombs drying up and cracking and generally crumbling apart. I was pretty devastated. In the end, I used a recipe that makes smaller batches (2 large mold or 4 small molds) bath bombs. I’m so happy with the result! This is a perfect device to help you clear yourself of negative energies and to activate your intentions, inviting the things that you want into your life. Enjoy!

Start by mixing all of your dry ingredients in a bowl. If you’re using dry herbs, you can mix those in with your dry ingredients or create pockets later. If you’re using powder color pigment, that counts as dry. However, if you’re using food coloring, that will go with your wet ingredients. Use your whisk to combine all the ingredients until it’s pretty uniform

Mix your wet ingredients in a separate bowl. That’s your essential oil, almond/ coconut oil, water, and optional food coloring. Use a spoon to slowly add drops of your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients. Whisk as you do this to combine them. If it starts to fizz a lot, slow down.

Once all your ingredients are combined you add any flower petals or herbs you’re using. Then you can begin to make the molds.

Press a handful of your mix into a mold until it’s flush with the top and smooth. Smooth around the sides of the rim to eliminate a rim from the final product. Each half should be just a tiny bit heaping.

Press each half together firmly. Flip so that one-half is sitting on top of the other. Carefully take the mold off the top half and set the bottom half down so the ball can begin to dry. That should take 15 minutes or so. After the DIY Ritual Bath Bomb has been drying a little bit, carefully flip it over so the exposed half of the bath bomb is down and carefully take the other half of the mold off.

Allow the totally exposed bath bombs to dry overnight for at least 8 hours before using or wrapping them.

Enjoy this DIY Ritual Bath Bomb recipe!

DIY Ritual Bath Bomb

Ingredients

4 oz. of baking soda/ sodium bicarbonate

2 oz. of citric acid

2 oz. of corn starch

2 oz. of sea salts or Epsom salts (sea salt is more mineral rich while Epsom salt is just magnesium. Both will aide aches and pains, sea salt is better for clearing negative energy as you would before a ritual)

1-1.5 tsp. of water

1 tsp. essential oil (10-15 drops)

1 1/4 tsp almond/ coconut carrier oil

Molds or cookie cutter shapes

Optional: Color pigment or food coloring and dried herbs

Instructions

Start by mixing all of your dry ingredients in a bowl. If you're using dry herbs, you can mix those in with your dry ingredients or create pockets later. If you're using powder color pigment, that counts as dry. If you're using food coloring, that will go with your wet ingredients. Use your whisk to combine all the ingredients until it's pretty uniform

Use a spoon to slowly add drops of your wet ingredients to your dry ingredients as you whisk to combine them. If it starts to fizz a lot, slow down.

5

Once all your ingredients are combined you can begin to make the molds. Press a handful of your mix into a mold until it's flush with the top and smooth. Smooth around the sides of the rim to eliminate a rim from the final product. Each half should be just a tiny bit heaping.

6

Press each half together firmly. Flip so that one-half is sitting on top of the other. Carefully take the mold off the top half and set the bottom half down so the entire ball can begin to dry a bit (15 minutes or so). After the DIY Ritual Bath Bomb has been drying a little bit, carefully flip it over so the exposed half of the bath bomb is down and carefully take the other half of the mold off.

7

Allow the totally exposed bath bombs to dry overnight for at least 8 hours before placing them into a bath, cellophane, or packaging/ wrap.

I’ve seen concepts for DIY Rope Baskets a lot—on Pinterest and various blogs—with people using laundry baskets (the standard, dollar store plastic ones with holes). These baskets are perfect for beside a sofa or living room setting to have blankets and other items of comfort on hand. I have my blankets stored elsewhere and what I really needed was something cute to store my dog’s toys in. So I came up with an idea to do a DIY Rope Dog Toy Basket.

I had a leftover IKEA wastebasket—sans holes— so I thought I’d give my version a try. My wastebasket is much smaller than a laundry basket. I had a lot of extra sisal rope from Home Depot, in two different sizes that had been sitting outside in the rain for almost a year (eek, I know). So I finally freed it from its wet prison and draped it over my porch railing to air dry a bit. Once it was mostly dry, I threw it into the dryer for 30 minutes to finish the job. My original vision was to use the thicker kind of sisal on the bottom and try to taper up into the thinner twine. Sounded easy enough!

In the end, for my DIY Rope Dog Toy Basket I chose to begin with the thicker sisal, braid in the thinner sisal halfway up for three rows, and end with just the small sisal. I’m super happy with the result, and so is Tallulah (she’s the cute one in black).

DIY Rope Dog Toy Basket

Step One: Collect Your Supplies

10 ft. of natural sisal rope

Wastebasket

Cloth/ textile of your choice

Hot glue gun & Glue

Scissors

Step Two: Cut your fabric

For this step, lay the fabric inside the wastebasket so that it is touching the bottom and all the sides. This way, if something heavy is put in, the weight won’t tear the fabric or make the hot-glue come undone.

Step Three: Cut off the fabric that’s overlapping the lip of the wastebasket on the outside.

Give yourself about an inch to overlap. Once you’ve cut around the outside, you can begin to hot glue the fabric so it overlaps the lip of the wastebasket by about 1″. I wasn’t bunching my fabric enough when I started gluing, so I ended up with a bunch of fabric spilling out when I reached the end. However, I liked the effect and decided to keep it! The best part about DIY is that sometimes your mistakes can inspire you 🙂

Step Four: Begin gluing the sisal rope, starting at the base.

Once you’ve secured the fabric to the outside lip of the wastebasket, you can start to glue your sisal on. I used all the glue pictured (about 12-13 sticks), so have a lot on hand if you need it. Apply the glue directly to the basket and pressed the sisal into it for ten seconds to dry. Glue about 5″ at a time.

Step Five: Continue

Now you’ll basically continue gluing and wrapping the sisal all the way around until you’re finished. If you want to do a braided effect start it once you reach the second tier/ halfway point. Begin to twist in the thinner sisal. Do this for a few rows. Then, cut the thick sisal rope and continue in a straight line all the way around with the more lightweight sisal. This is the end result and I’m super happy with it. If you’re good at needlepoint or embroidery the excess cloth would be great to add a monogrammed initial or a little heart.

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed this tutorial for a DIY Rope Dog Toy Basket! Let me know in the comments how it turned out and tag me on Instagram in your creations! I’d love to see <3